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Problem: Wiseway Motor Freight Inc. specializes in transporting finished goods to customers in the Midwest from the factories of the “Furniture Belt,” spanning North Carolina and other southeastern states.

“We've labeled ourselves the Number One furniture hauler in the Midwest,” points out Mitch Dahl. “To stay Number One, you have to stay ahead of the competition.” And he says Wiseway's competition has stiffened thanks to growth in the market for furniture hauling.

According to Dahl, what he calls “creative dispatching” is a key sales tool Wiseway employs to stay ahead of the pack. He says the fleet recognized it needed a mobile-communications system that would allow its dispatchers to affordably contact drivers out on the road at a moment's notice with word of new loads or changes in routing.

Solution: Dahl reports Wiseway investigated a number of options before electing to install PeopleNet's (www.peoplenetonline.com) newest-generation tracking and communications system, INTOUCH G2X, in its 136-vehicle fleet.

“In the past, we relied only on voicemail, which didn't work very well,” he relates.

“With INTOUCH G2X, we're now able to easily locate our drivers and put runs together. It's a 150% improvement from what we were doing before,” says Dahl.

The system boasts voice and text messaging carried over an analog cellular service as well as GPS tracking.

The fleet accesses the INTOUCH G2X network via a secure web site. And the site provides several fleet-management tools as well, such as fuel-tax reporting, that draw on both vehicle-location data and information input by drivers.

The system's in-cab voice- and data-messaging capability ensures drivers can receive and respond to orders without delay, Dahl points out.

He also notes that by allowing dispatch to work more smoothly, the entire fleet is reducing “missed opportunities” to better serve its customers.

Dahl figures that INTOUCH G2X also met Wiseway's affordability requirement by costing half as much as competitive systems.

“We estimate that our savings on long-distance telephone charges alone will more than make up for the initial investment,” he says.

Icing on the cake for Dahl are the other features the system offers, including free driver email and over-the-air programming that automatically sends upgrades to in-cab hardware without having to pull the trucks off the road.